Clang: Kickstarter for a Realistic Sword Fighter

[Guild McCommunist]

Clang comes from science fiction author Neal Stephenson, who is now aiming to make a highly realistic, motion controlled sword fighting game.

The Kickstarter also comes with a trailer, viewable at the source, that's full of plenty of humor and even a guest appearance from an eccentric billionaire.

Some of the technical demos and development is also viewable in the video, with the game truly aiming to be realistic. It'll also be a completely duel-based game with no open world or such. However, stories relating to the game are already beginning to be published, and the game and books intend to eventually get woven together through future content.

The goal for the Kickstarter is $500,000, currently sitting at around $160,000 at the time this article was published. There's also around a month left (28 days) until it closes (again, at the time this article was published).

But the real question is, is the crowbar mightier than the sword?

Source​

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Wow. I'm...actually kinda interested in this. I've always been a bit interested in swordplay in general, and if this teaches correct maneuvers and position and isn't just a *SWING SWING SWING* thing I'd probably play the shit out of it.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Wow. I'm...actually kinda interested in this. I've always been a bit interested in swordplay in general, and if this teaches correct maneuvers and position and isn't just a *SWING SWING SWING* thing I'd probably play the shit out of it.

I'd see a few tutorials showing off a few moves but it does seem incredibly ambitious. Like it aims to make an actual sword fight, not the "meat stick slappers" of Wii Sports Resort. Like it actually melds swordplay and hand-to-hand combat, like an actual swordfight would.

I just don't see any motion controller on the market that would be accurate enough to do all this. We're talking about tracking every small nuance of movement. That's nothing that a WM+, PS Move, or Kinect can do (there's also a PC motion controller but I forget what it's called).

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Yeah, I think the controller would be the hardest part of it. I'm curious as to how they will do it, whether it'll be a plug&play sitck with an attachment for the other hand or some sort of Kinect-type camera or both. Perhaps it'll be like...a pair of wireless gloves and a controller or something. Who knows.

I must admit, the video made me laugh a lot.

 

[BORTZ]

Im throwing my money at my monitor and nothing is happening.

 

[machomuu]

I'm very interested, this is something I've wanted for the longest time.

 

[notmeanymore]

None of the pledge amounts mention the motion control hardware, except the $25 tier which says "motion control hardware not included"

The description itself says

Initially, CLANG will make use of a commercial, third-party, off-the-shelf controller that anyone can buy today

This leaves 2 options in my mind: Kinect or the Razer Hydra. Considering how expensive the Hydra is though, I don't see that happening. It'll probably be the Kinect.
Derp. The Hydra is actually cheaper than the Kinect. So I suppose if they're looking for extreme accuracy, the Hydra would be just the thing.

 

[exangel]

I'm a major Neal Stephenson fan and I also am throwing all of my debit cards and cash at screen, nothing happening. XD
If I can play as Hiro Protagonist, that's worth my $59.99 or whatever they charge for the end product which will likely be a niche market product. In fact, will have to get multiple copies so less obsessed friends can step up as my opponent.

 

[Mazor]

But the real question is, is the crowbar mightier than the sword?

But the actual real question is, will Clang be compiled with Clang?

 

[Janthran]

Im throwing my money at my monitor and nothing is happening.

I wonder why that is.

 

[BORTZ]

Im throwing my money at my monitor and nothing is happening.

I wonder why that is.

Help me Janthran, help me!

 

[ferofax]

I'm guessing if this aims for realism, this is gonna be something like that swordfight sim game on the PSX, except with motion controls. You know, different styles, different stances per style, different strikes per stance. in short, overwhelming and with a steep learning curve.

also, OHKO and cutting off limbs.

 

[Gahars]

It's called Clang, but I wonder; can it make the Cha-Ching? ...Okay, that was bad, even by my standards.

Anyway, this looks like a pretty interesting idea. If they can pull it off, hey, count me in.

 

[The Milkman]

As long as I can disarm and use a mouse I'm up for it.

 

[exangel]

Tuesday July 03 -- Edit -- 80% funded with 5 days left!

Subutai has posted a lot of updates on the Kickstarter page including screenshots of the interface and details regarding compatibility and control technology.
They'll be using open source Sixth Sense technology which, in its' current form, is best employed for this purpose by the Razer Hydra controller.
They have already addressed how this does not track stance nearly as much as movement, but as far as realism goes, they also want it to be highly usable, the realism will go into the in-game physics more than forcing the user to perfectly reproduce every single movement every time. More elaborate moves might generally be triggered by chaining, as shown in one of the diagrams in their Updates page.

I've thrown as much as I can spare at it, but I'll see what more I can do when the Kickstarter ends.


edit:
They added a video tour to their updates:

 

[exangel]

Forgive (or, mod please edit/merge) for double post, but I wanted people following this thread to get the update:

Less than 3 days are left now on this project, and with articles in Forbes online and USA Today, the final push is looking really promising. In two days, they've gotten in excess of 600 more backers. And in the time it's taken me to screenshot the progress and revise this update before I post, they've already gained a handful more.

If you are on Facebook, you can show your support via a promo Razer is holding without making any kind of transaction!
https://www.facebook...elevant_count=1
For every "Like" and every "Share" this sponsor will donate $1 toward the Kickstarter, up to $10,000 maximum.

If you're not interested in investing your own money, please consider at least heading over to that FB post and hitting "Like" because that promo is legit (Razer being the provider of the ideal motion controller for the game).

ALSO, REGARDING CONTROL:
There is an official statement on the kickstarter page saying that there WILL be Keyboard & Mouse support, so anyone who was deterred from donating $25 or more ($25 being the minimum to "pre-order" a copy of your own) due to the price of the Hydra controller should definitely give it a second consideration!

We will build a keyboard/mouse interface, if for no other reason than we need it for testing and development. You can use it if you want, but it kind of misses the point. The “value added” of CLANG is the ability to play a sword game by moving the controller in pretty much the same way that a real swordfighter would move a real sword.
Last updated: Saturday Jun 9, 10:23pm EDT

 

[exangel]

The fundraiser has broken 500k (100%) with 33 hours to go. It's unlikely they'll meet the extended goal of $800,000 to confirm Linux support, but they will at least be able to uphold all the promises made to everyone who backed their kickstarter. I personally pledged enough to get two copies of the game ($40) as well as get my name in the credits.